DAEDALUS IN CUMAE

DAEDALUS IN CUMAE

Eurydice turns and sinks to Hell; Pollux for his brother daily dies; Daedalus the craftsman makes the wings Wherewith his only son, all heedless, flies... Icarus, his wings dropped back to earth, Flies upward, naked, golden in the sun, Skims like a fish through Zephyrus' blown hair, Hies on toward the bright-eyed Holy One... Standing on Olympus' sacred heights Zeus watches as the glowing boy draws near, Observes the slim young limbs, the fragile chest, The body that his father held so dear... Daedalus, in Cumae, from the maze Escaped, mourns silently for his lost son; Kneeling he asks why he was not the one Who fell to earth, to Zeus he fervent prays: «Almighty God, be Father to my son, Accept him and forgive his few young sins, Let Glaucus come to calm the troubled waves, Poseidon grace the place where he plashed in;

«As over him the booming billow closes Let his struggling limbs find rest in you; Fasten eternal wings unto his shoulders, Strong wings, that can withstand your holy view...

«All the promises I have not kept!... I have no right to ask... forgetting You In pride, ambition, man-made wings that flew... Yet Lord I do ask... » And Daedalus wept...

Icarus, kneeling, head bowed, before Zeus, Says nothing, dumb with wonder and with love; Zeus, hearing in his mind the sighs and tears Of Daedalus' libation, stands above The beautiful boy, taking in his hand The metal disc still chained to Icarus' neck: «Who carved this plate, engravéd with thy name?» «My father, Daedalus, before my wreck.»

«Because thy father mourns for thee and weeps, Because he loves thee more than his own life, Sunk though thou be beneath the watry floar, By this disc I raise thee up to Paradise!»

Zeus stooping lifts him from the perilous flood, From out the sea's lips and the torrent wild, Stilling the sea-green terror in his blood, Holding him as tenderly as His own child! Clutching to his breast the boy the god Straight to Olympus flies... Unbroken wings Vibrate, disturb the water, and are gone... The wreckage of the flight, the broken wings, Float on the surface for a time, then sink... The ocean is as peaceful as the sky Where overhead two circling sea-birds fly And, circling skyward, blur, grow indistinct... Daedalus, on the shore, from weeping starts: A bird's sleepy cry in the deepening night Disturbs him. Looking up he sees the flight... And suddenly he smiles, light of heart!

On Mount Olympus nymphs surround the boy, Drying his limbs with cloth of finest sort, Oiling the burnt skin, soothing out the hurt Where he flew near the sun. Now all is joy And peace, because a father loved his son; And Pollux died to himself, for Castor's sake! Though Eurydice dies to Orpheus, The songs he sings will Eurydice make! And Daedalus has forged a metal disc Engravéd with I. C. A. R. U. S !... And I have made a poem on clean white sheets More like a prayer than anyone could guess: «Pray God, forgive the sins of Icarus, Soothe the crushed limbs, smooth out the hair astray, Accept him into Heaven as Thy Son... And all the others who have died this day.»

In memory of the French submarine Eurydice; lost without survivors. (March 1970)